Van Buren Teacher Suspected Of Sending Inappropriate Texts To Students

A Van Buren High School teacher suspected of sending inappropriate text messages to two female students turned himself in to Van Buren police and was arrested Friday.

Rhett Kelley, 32, of Van Buren was arrested under suspicion of harassing communications after he turned himself in to Van Buren police at about 5 p.m. Friday, said detective Jonathan Wear of the Van Buren Police Department.

A 15-year-old female student contacted police saying she received several inappropriate text messages from Kelley, according to a Feb. 22 police report. The girl told police Kelley was one of her teachers, and that she was a babysitter for Kelley in November or December.

The girl also told police initial text exchanges with Kelley consisted mainly of school-related topics, but Kelley later began texting “at all hours” and the messages became unrelated to school, the report states.

A detective read the text messages and described them as “sexual in nature,” according to the report. In one of the exchanges, Kelley allegedly asked the student to go to the mall and help him pick out panties, and allegedly told her, “she could try on the panties so that he would know what they looked like,” the report states.

Police took possession of the phone after the student made the report, but did not receive any inappropriate messages from Kelley, the report states.

The 15-year-old girl also told police that a friend of hers, also 15, received similar text messages from Kelley, according to the report.

On Feb. 22, police arrived at the high school where they interviewed the girls with the school’s resource officer and administration officials present. Police reviewed the text messages sent to the girl’s friend, which a detective described as also “sexual in nature,” the report states.

Kelley allegedly told police at the school that the only reason he was texting the girls was to keep them from having sex, according to the report.

“I read every text from both phones and never saw a text from (Kelley) to one of these girls that mentioned that he did not want them to have (sex),” the report states.

Administration officials dismissed Kelley from school and escorted him to his vehicle. He was arrested Friday and admitted to the Crawford County Detention Center.